Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to The Outsiders. They all belong to the unbribable S.E. Hinton.

Warning: Lots of dialogue, a little swearing, and very little action, but I assure you, dear reader, it's necessary.

Chapter 10

I donned the gray suit again for my meeting with Ms. Blake. I gave the guys some money to go out for lunch. I didn't want Soda to see me in the suit again. I also wanted some time to collect my thoughts. The house seemed weird being empty, but that's just what I needed then.

It didn't take me long to get to the office. Ms. Blake was waiting in the lobby for me. She was at least a foot shorter than me. Her black hair was sprinkled with gray and neatly cut at her shoulders. She had on a black dress suit that made her look like my executioner. I swallowed the lump in my throat.

She led us down the hall to her office. It was not very big. There was a bookshelf along one wall and a metal filing cabinet along the other. Her diploma hung on the wall directly behind her so that when she sat down, you couldn't help but see the thing when you looked at her. She motioned for me to take the chair across the desk from her. Her gold-framed eyeglasses sat about half way down her nose. Her black eyes bore into me. I could tell she had already made up her mind about me, and it wasn't good.

"Mr. Curtis, thank you for coming in," she began. "As I said before, we need to discuss your brother's death and your involvement with it."

"I didn't kill my brother," I snapped. I hated that this woman who didn't really know us would think I had anything to do with Pony's death.

Her eyebrows rose at my outburst. "I see," she said and wrote something in her notes. " Mr. Curtis, may I call you Darrel?"

I nodded.

"Darrel," she continued, "no one has accused you of killing your youngest brother, Ponyboy." She had to riffle through the papers in our folder to find his name.

I said nothing. I figured it just went to show how much she had cared about us and our situation that she didn't even remember Pony's name.

"It is very serious when a child under our supervision is killed. As his guardian, you were responsible for his protection as we were responsible for making sure his environment was safe and in his best interest. We both failed Ponyboy."

My face grew red with shame and anger at this woman. I already knew I had failed him, why did she have to rub it in?

"At this point, all we can do is get as much information as possible to hopefully prevent this tragedy touching another family."

I nodded again.

"Now, Darrel, can you tell me why Ponyboy wasn't under your supervision at 2 o'clock in the morning?"

"He had gone to the movies with a friend..." I started.

"Which friend?" she interrupted.

"Johnny."

"Johnny Cade?"

"Yes, ma'am. He was Pony's closest friend."

"I see," she said again. "Please continue."

"They had gone to the Nightly Double. When he wasn't home at curfew..."

"And what time was his curfew?"

I was getting sick of her interrupting."Midnight, ma'am," I said, doing my best to control the anger I was feeling.

"Do you think midnight is an appropriate curfew for a 14-year-old?"

"The Nightly Double wouldn't be over until 11:30. I gave him a half an hour to get home. So, yes, I think that's reasonable."

"How were the boys supposed to get home?"

I swallowed hard. I already knew she wouldn't like my answer. "They were gonna walk home," I said in a small voice.

"Walk home? At 11:30 at night? Do you think that was a good idea?"

I could see she was getting upset now. I thought she must have thought I was the worst guardian on the planet. "Ma'am the Nightly Double isn't far from our neighborhood."

"How old is Mr. Cade?" she asked abruptly.

"I'm pretty sure he's 16. Why?"

"Let me see if I have this straight so far. You let your 14-year-old brother go to the movies with his 16-year-old friend. You then expected these two children to walk home at 11:30 at night. Is that correct so far?"

I just nodded. When she put it that way, it didn't sound so good. I'm sure she would have just loved it if I had told her that our 17-year-old juvenile delinquent friend was with them.

"Darrel, does this seem responsible to you?"

"I didn't expect any kinda trouble, if that's what you mean," I said.

She was writing in her notes again. "What did you do when Ponyboy missed curfew?"

I swallowed hard again. "I...I...Could I please have a drink?"

Her eyebrows lifted again, but she got up and left the room. I was sweating something fierce. This woman already hated me. And what did I do when my little brother missed curfew? Nothing, that's what I did. I sat in the armchair and fumed. I didn't go looking for him. Hell, I thought, I wouldn't have known where to start. But I knew in a second that wasn't the truth. I would have started at the lot. There wasn't anywhere else I could think of where Pony and Johnny could hang out. I knew they were smart enough to stay away from Buck's, or I thought I did. But that's where Johnny had gone. I took several deep breaths to collect myself before Ms. Blake returned with a cup of water. I drank it gratefully.

"Now, Darrel, what did you do when Ponyboy missed curfew?"

I sighed deeply. "I worried," I said.

"You didn't do anything else?" she asked in an accusatory tone

I shook my head. I don't think I could say it out loud. It would just prove how badly I had failed Pony.

Ms. Blake was scribbling furiously now. "Why didn't you call the police?"

"I didn't want to lose my brothers," I said honestly.

"That worked out well, now didn't it?" she snapped at me. "Did Ponyboy ever come home that night?"

"Yes," I said through gritted teeth. What right did this woman have to judge me? She had no idea the things I did to make sure that Pony was taken care of.

"What time did he come home?" Her voice was harsh now. The rest of this interview was going to be an interrogation.

"Around 2 in the morning,." I decided I wasn't going to give her more information than was necessary.

Her eyebrows shot up and she looked at me hard then. "What happened, Mr. Curtis. His time of death wasn't much after 2."

"We got in a fight..."

"Did you strike him?" The interrogation voice was back.

I looked right at her. "No," I said. I hated lying, but wasn't this for the best? Wasn't I trying to help Soda by lying? "Our fight was verbal."

She huffed. "Go on."

"We were both yellin' at each other. Soda..."

"Your missing brother, right?"

I had enough of her interrupting. "Yes," I said, this time not able to keep the anger out of my voice. "If you want to know what happened that night, would you please just let me tell you!"

She looked at me again. I think I had frightened her a bit with my outburst. "By all means," She said.

I sank back in the chair. I took a shaky breath before I continued. "Soda tried to get us both to calm down. He was always tryin' to keep us from fightin'." I could see she wanted to say something, but she didn't, so I continued. "I yelled at Soda when he was just tryin' to calm us down. Pony didn't like me yellin' at Soda, so he ran out. That's the last I saw him." I sank deeper in the chair. I was emotionally spent.

"Did you and Ponyboy fight often?" she asked, showing no sympathy.

"Yeah...no...I don't know!" I exclaimed. " I wanted him to enjoy bein' a kid, but I wanted a better life for him than we had. I pushed hard so he could have the chances me and Soda didn't get."

"Did you resent him for his chances for a better life?"

"Absolutely not!" I yelled. "I was so damn proud of him!"

"Mr. Curtis, please lower your voice," she said. "I think I'm getting a clear picture of the night Ponyboy died. Is there anything else you would like to say about this?"

"Ms. Blake," I started weakly "I love my brothers. Both of them. I do the best I can for them. I have to be both brother and father to them. it isn't always easy, but I wouldn't change it for anything."

"Mr. Curtis, why did you seek custody after your parents died?"

"It's what my parents would have wanted. The three of us stickin' together," I said with a shrug. I thought it was pretty obvious why I did what I did.

"Is it what you wanted?" she asked.

"Of course! I had just lost my parents, I wasn't about to lose my brothers too." The anger was trying to come back.

"I see," she said. "Now about Sodapop. Mr. Curtis, do you know where he is?"

"No." Again, I looked right at her and again I lied to her face.

"We find it odd that we can't track down any of the friends you mentioned to us. You wouldn't know where they are, would you?"

"Yeah, I know where they are. They're out lookin' for Soda."

"I see." I really wished she would stop saying that because she didn't understand at all.

"Well, Mr. Curtis, I think we're about done here then."

"So what now?" I wasn't sure I wanted the answer but I needed to know.

"For now, nothing. No decisions can be made before we talk to Sodapop. I would also like to talk to Johnny Cade, as he appears to be the last of Ponyboy's friends that saw him alive that night."

I just nodded at her.

"Remember, Mr. Curtis, we agreed to keep each other informed about Sodapop."

"I remember, ma'am."

"As I said, there's nothing we can do until we talk to Sodapop," she said as she walked to the door and opened it. "Have a good afternoon, Mr. Curtis."

I hurried out the door and out of the building. When I got to my truck, I took off the tie I was wearing. I was exhausted and just happy for the safety of the truck.

A/N:
Thanks for all of the reviews. I'm glad you, dear reader, are enjoying my tale. Please read and enjoy. As always, reviews are appreciated. I promise there will be a lot more action in the next chapter.